Andy Moran stepped down as Leitrim manager two years ago this month, and he left with some of his players not totally convinced by his philosophy towards the game.
It was a three-year spell that mixed the good with the bad. Promotion from Division 3 in his final season was a massive boon, but there were lowlights too, particularly in the Connacht championship – a 23-point hammering at the hands of Galway, just 0-06 at home to Sligo and, most famously of all, the first ever manager to lose a provincial game to New York.
After that 2024 season came to an end, it's believed that a few Leitrim players were feeling disillusioned, even if such thoughts were never uttered in front of the microphone of a reporter.
Fast-forward two years and it’s inevitable that in the coming weeks some politician will, with genuine sincerity, call for a statue of Andy Moran to be built.
Maybe Knock Airport is the spot for it with James Horan already remembered in bronze, albeit it’s the monsignor who drove the campaign for the airport to be built rather than the former Mayo bainisteoir. When it was unveiled back in 2013, some wanted it to be renamed Horan Airport. It's a pity it wasn't, H can transform into M pretty easily with the work of a good crowbar.
On the weekend that statue was being unveiled, Mayo had made the trip north – not by airplane – for a challenge game with Fermanagh. Moran took part in the warm-up and half-time kickaround in a massive step-up from a cruciate injury picked up against Down the year before.
Moran’s commitment to recovery saw him return and help Mayo to the All-Ireland final where they lost to Dublin by a point, one of six times where he has been on the losing side of deciders.
One day changes everything though.
The player who couldn’t win an All-Ireland, the manager who couldn't crack the Leitrim code, is now the hottest managerial property in the sport.
The evidence would have come in GAA Whatsapp groups up and down the country on Sunday evening and Monday morning.
Inter-county or club, senior or junior B, it didn’t matter, the Mayo model would be examined and scrutinised for possible content by everyone in recent days. Many a huddle at training this week would have had a manager addressing his or her players and exhorting the values of Mayo's achievement.
If Tyrone in '03 had the swarm and Donegal in 2012 had the system, then we can maybe call Mayo’s triumph 'the faith'.
Imitation has always been a friend of the GAA coach, but trends always have a lifespan.
McGuinness’ system was so noted that it even has its own Wikipedia page. Pat Spillane suggested the uber-defensive, counter-attacking style that blurred the role of attacker and defender, adopted en-masse around the country afterwards, should see come coaches end up in the Hague.
A few years later, its shock and awe had disappeared as teams found a way to combat it. McGuinness still remains on one Sam Maguire and comments by Dublin selector Declan Darcy in 2017 were telling.
"The key thing is, the more you (experience) that phase of play the more you understand it and I think players now have begun to see what way it works and how to break it down," was his summation of the blanket defence, a style he felt had run its course.
Moran didn’t reinvent the wheel tactically à la McGuinness, instead it was more setting his side up to carry out his positive philosophy to the maximum. It was an attitude adjustment, not in the sense of changing them from bad to good, but rather in how they saw the game and its possibilities.
The high press, led by the ferocious Ryan O’Donoghue, had all the hallmarks of what Moran wants from his team; take chances, don’t be worried about what could go wrong and, if it does goes wrong, have another go.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t tactical brilliance across the field, but it had the feeling of a team free of any shackles and, crucially, key scores coming at the perfect time.
What Moran has managed to do is speed up the process of killing what had been viewed as a tactical certainty.
Under the new FRC enhancements, one thing was non-negotiable. Or until last weekend, seemed to be.
To have any genuine chance of winning a big football game, you needed to out-perform your opponent on kick-outs and break balls. Armagh manager Kieran McGeeney called it ‘piggery’ after a league loss to Roscommon in February and the GAA lexicon had a popular new inductee.
Mayo’s performance on kick-outs in the final was well below what had been deemed an acceptable level for success. Kerry won 17 breaks to Mayo’s eight, Kerry won 11 clean to Mayo’s 10, two Mayo restarts went over the sideline to one from Kerry. The All-Ireland champions were running at 40% on both their own and their opponent’s restarts.
Their shooting efficiency was a mind-boggling 38%. In the third quarter, so often the golden quarter, they had 12 shots and scored from four of those. Kerry scored four from seven.
But Moran’s positive mantras rang true time and time again. Reset and press again, force another chance and have another shot – something very much evident in the fact that they were successful from just four of their 13 two-point attempts.
Kerry lost possession four times in the defensive third and four times in the middle third, Mayo lost possession three times across those two zones.
A crucial result of that was Kerry’s six successful short kick-outs ended up with 0-02. Mayo had one less, but managed two two-pointers.
It really was everything Moran could have hoped for.
The biggest issue with imitation is that it’s nearly impossible to better the team that invented it. If you try and better them at their own game, you’ll mostly lose.
The likes of Donegal’s 2011/12 system was built on incredible intricacies where every minute detail was ran hundreds of times on the training field.
Mayo’s plan had a broader spectrum and, as a result, is more open to being copied even if it’s not a style that can be replicated perfectly given there’s almost too much freedom in it.
With the club championships kicking into gear, most teams will have an idea of what they want to achieve. There’s no time for major restructure, but it would be a surprise if some transferable points of Mayo’s game were not on view across the country.
Expect teams to station a high-energy press triggerman at full-forward. Expect some managers to come to the realisation that the volume of shots has been ignored in the quest for midfield possession.
It’s in 2027 though, when the inter-county leagues get really going, that we may just see how much of an influence Mayo’s win has had.
County managers have time to be more intricate in how they construct a press, the space to work on the overlooked points such as the fact that the triggerman’s effectiveness relies on the reaction times of the second and third person in.
County managers will also have more time to scour for young, energetic talent to fill the roles of Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne with the latter having a huge impact on how Mayo played in the closing stages of the championship.
Over the last five years, Tyrone (4), Kerry (2), Kildare (2), Louth and Sligo have appeared in All-Ireland Under-20 finals. We know enough about the first two but it'll be interesting to see just what the final three do next season.
It would be easy to laugh at the Leitrim players now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Moran’s three seasons were played under the old rules. Jim Gavin brought heartache to the Mayo legend on many occasions; maybe it his drive for change with the FRC that ironically paved the way for Moran’s All-Ireland dreams to be ultimately realised.
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